


Fangirling

by JoJo



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Family, M/M, POV Child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-02
Updated: 2017-03-02
Packaged: 2018-09-27 23:16:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10056296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoJo/pseuds/JoJo
Summary: A history assignment makes Grace think about her family and how ‘Uncle' Steve fits in.  And she starts to worry.





	

One day in history they had a class about trees. 

“Genealogy,” Mr. Dooley said. He underlined the word on the whiteboard. 

They looked at a too-complicated one that was to do with Mr. Dooley’s favorite House of Hanover. It had branches of queens and dukes and princesses above and below and sideways. And there were a serious load of borns and dieds and marrieds and divorceds, sisters and brothers and aunts and uncles.

Grace thought it wasn’t that interesting to be honest.

But then Mr. Dooley said maybe they could draw a tree for their own family, but of course if they didn’t want to, or their parents or guardians didn’t want them to, that was fine. 

“Like, actually draw it out properly and not use the computer,” he’d added. 

Which was all typical Mr. Dooley.

Grace decided in the end it was quite a cool assignment because she had the England branches and the New Jersey branches, and on the weekend Danno spoke to Poppa Eddie who said there were some Italian branches, too, and those were the ones that gave them their true appreciation of pizza. 

“More like twigs,” Danno had said afterwards.

Mom started off being irritated that it was another “voluntary” assignment, but then she got into it. They ended up spending one evening curled on the sofa looking through a box of old photographs and StepStan said that was way better than looking at the TV or being hooked up to the Borg Brain. 

Which, OK, whatever.

Grace and Danno talked about it as well, and although he didn’t have old photographs in Hawai’i he said way, way further back than the pizza people the Williamses had either come from Wales or were the King of France. Something like that.

Next lesson Mr. Dooley had them pin their trees up around the classroom and everyone walked around and traced their fingers on them. He said they could think up questions, like what was the family name of Kimo Kekoa’s maternal grandmother, but nobody could work it out because Kimo Kekoa’s branches were very tangled.

“Like, okay, guys, for example, I’ll give you an easy one to start - how many uncles does Grace Williams have?”

And the answer, nice and easy, according to her very neat ruled tree (and not counting two Great Uncles she’d never met) was five. 

There was Uncle Josh, who was Auntie Stella’s husband, Uncle Ted, who was Auntie Bridget's husband, Uncle Paul who was married to Mom’s sister in France, Uncle Richard, who was Mom’s brother, and her lovely, lovely Uncle Mattie who’d died. Grace had thought she might feel sad writing him down but in the end it had made her feel pleased he was part of them even though she had to put 'dec' under his name.

“Hold on,” Lucas Banks said from the back and everyone stopped tracing their fingers all over the trees and looked at him. 

It would be him of course. And he would, of course, be hanging around at the back. Danno called him “a little thug”, or sometimes “Voldemort” because he was Grace’s nemesis. Lucas had been that since long before the day she’d punched him for being a bully. 

“You have a question?” Mr. Dooley asked as if he actually knew Lucas didn’t.

“So,” Lucas said, eyes all wide as if he didn’t quite understand. “What about your badass ‘Uncle’ Steve, Grace?” And then he smirked and did stupid things with his eyebrows.

There was a little wave of snickers round the class that made Mr. Dooley frown. 

Grace didn’t really know what to say, because Uncle Steve was a favorite of hers, for reasons. Only of course he wasn’t on the tree because he wasn’t related to her. Anymore than Uncle Chin or Auntie Kono were. And she knew Lucas Banks was just being a dick. Only she wouldn’t ever say that except to her friends, in private, and certainly not in front of either her mom or dad who’d end up forgetting the reasons and just go on and on about that one word and how it didn’t sound nice.

Mr. Dooley shut things down right away. But then later there was some pushing and shoving in the lunch line and Lucas Banks did a stupid walk in front of her with his hand on his hip and his lips squinched together.

“Hey, guys, guys. Look! I’m Uncle Steve and I’m in the Navy!”

Most people told him to stop being a jerk, although Lucas had his own friends who laughed as if he was hilarious rather than behaving like some lame throwback from last century.

Grace knew Lucas was an ass-hat and didn’t feel especially bad – not for herself, anyhow. She just felt a sharp, burning hurt inside for Uncle Steve. Let’s face it, she’d been in class with Lucas Banks long enough to know what he was like. Grace knew there just were kids like him. People like him. She could have punched him in the face again, sure, but that would just give Danno a headache.

“All families are different,” Mr. Dooley had said worriedly in class, giving one of his sincere, important speeches. “And,” he’d finished up, “all families are equally valid.” 

Once they’d gotten around to who lived with who and was really related by blood and if that mattered and how complicated it all was he probably wished he’d never introduced the topic in the first place. Because when he got flustered Grace and her best friend Lola Palakiko couldn’t stop giggling.

Some of the complications were cool, although there were a few that weren’t. Grace knew she came from what would once have been called a “broken home”, but it really wasn’t anywhere as broken as some.

Okay, so there were moments when she wished Danno and her mom had never stopped being married to each other. Grace loved them both so much it hurt they weren’t together and she always missed the one she wasn’t with. And it could be kind of annoying having stuff in two places. But if they hadn’t stopped being married, and if her mom hadn’t met Stan and moved here, then Danno wouldn’t have come either, which meant he would never have met Uncle Steve.

“And my life would have been so much more perfect,” would be the kind of thing Danno would say but Grace knew – she actually knew – that he didn’t mean it. That, in fact, the opposite was true. Even though, okay, it was actually also true Uncle Steve could be a serious nightmare sometimes. He could be the kind of nightmare which made you just want him to go away already, and then when he did go away you’d really, really wish he hadn’t.

Anyway, there were plenty of other kids at school whose mom and dad didn’t live together and she certainly wasn’t the only kid who had two homes. There were kids who had only a mom or only a dad, or even only a grandma, or else a mom or dad with a new partner. Some of them liked their step-parent, some didn’t. Other kids had the two parents they started with but who didn’t get along anymore. Lucas Banks was one of those. 

Which made him way unhappier than her, Grace decided, and it was kind of hard to hate unhappy people. 

Another trouble was, Lucas Banks could actually be pretty funny. He could make the whole class just die sometimes. And then there was Megan Hale, who’d arrived from the mainland this semester and she only had a mom and seemed real sad about being at a new school until Lucas said something goofy in math class and made them all die. It was the first time Grace had seen Megan laugh. Or even smile.

Danno had made her promise she’d try and be kind to new kids because he said it could be tough fitting in and she should remember how she’d felt when they’d first come to Hawai’i. Megan’s dad was dead and that made Grace hurt in her tummy, but she’d promised Danno, which was bigger than anything. So she made Lola come with her to ask Megan to sit out on the grass with them during recess. They sat under their favorite tree which made Lola sulky. 

Megan was so pleased with the invitation she stopped being quiet and sad and suddenly wouldn’t stop going on about Lucas Banks. Like how cute he was, and how hilarious.

Really.

“And ohmygod what was that thing in history with your uncle, Gracie?” she asked, and Grace wondered if it was too mean to tell her there was actually quite a short list of people who she let call her ‘Gracie’, and Megan definitely wasn’t on it. 

Auntie Kono had laughed out loud when Grace had mentioned the ‘Gracie’ list at Kamekona’s a few weekends ago and said, “I love it, you’re so like your dad!”

“Which, hey, is a good thing in my book,” Uncle Steve had said, nudging her, and she could tell just from his super-quiet voice that he meant it. She’d gone all warm inside. Danno and Uncle Steve insulted each other a lot, all the time – it was cute as well as kind of annoying and hard to explain to other people – but Grace was a really big fan – like a huge, insane super-fan – of when they didn’t.

“You know that wasn’t actually funny, right, what Lucas said?” Lola pointed out to Megan, smart as a whip like always.

“Well, whatever, but so he’s not your actual uncle?” Megan asked Grace. “More like a friend of the family kind of uncle?”

“Kind of.” 

Grace wanted to be friendly and to share. But she also knew there were important reasons not to talk too much about Uncle Steve at school, which were in fact less to do with him being her dad’s sort-of boyfriend, and more to do with his secret mission stuff. She knew not to talk too much about her dad’s work either, come to that. For some reason not everybody in the world thought HPD and the Governor’s task force were so great.

“Yeah well the clue was her family tree,” Lola said to Megan, irritated. “You know, as in - he wasn’t on it.”

“I’m just asking.”

“It’s okay,” Grace said because she wasn’t as in-your-face as Lola. 

“My mom has a boyfriend,” Megan said then, kind of gloomy. “She wants me and my sisters to call him Uncle Lio but we hate him. Last year we had an Uncle Jeff.” And she looked at Grace.

Much as she was trying to be nice, Grace figured Megan Hale didn’t need to be told every last little thing straight away. 

“My Uncle Steve’s my dad’s work partner and I see him a lot. Like, a lot, more than my other uncles. I don’t know why Lucas Hedges is so obsessed about it.” 

Grace figured she’d find out about Lucas soon enough and could make up her own mind. Same as she’d maybe find out about her dad and Uncle Steve and make up her mind about that, too.

During the afternoon though – during quiet reading time – some thoughts began to swim around in her brain. Like little fishes that kept getting bigger. They started off as a couple of question thoughts, and then were more like a lot of thinky thoughts, and then, by the end of school, seemed to have turned into a whole head full of worry thoughts.

Because, really. What, exactly, was Uncle Steve to her?

“Did you ever have an auntie or uncle that wasn’t your real auntie or uncle?” she asked her mom that night as she was saying goodnight, and her mom had frowned. 

“We used to call my grandma’s cousin Auntie May. You mean like that?”

“Yes. No. Kind of.”

“What are you thinking of, sweetie?” Her mom had shifted closer to her, tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Well, like. Someone who wasn’t even in your family? Like I do with Auntie Kono and Uncle Chin, but not like they do with other people to be respectful and stuff.”

Her mom laughed. “Well that’s a traditional thing,” she said. “But I guess I know what you mean.”

“Is there anything wrong with it?”

“You mean like you calling them Auntie Kono and Uncle Chin even though they’re not in your family?”

“I suppose.”

“Of course there’s nothing wrong with it. You’re _ohana_ to them and they’re that for you, too.” Her mom had looked at her, and then, because she was smart she’d said, “Is this anything to do with your Uncle Steve?”

“Who isn’t my uncle.”

And then her mom had frowned again. Grace didn’t blame her because she really didn’t know what she was trying to ask either.

“Don’t you want him to be your uncle?”

“No. Yes. Maybe.”

And she told her mom about Megan Hale’s Uncle Lio who she hated, and then suddenly, although she’d been thinking about Uncle Steve, she began to really, really miss Uncle Mattie and found herself getting teary. But she didn’t know if she was just teary about Uncle Mattie or if she was teary about something else as well.

She didn’t feel quite right when she was with Danno either. Because they ended up spending the whole of the next weekend at Uncle Steve’s. Which was fun and cool like always, but Grace couldn’t remember if she had pyjamas and toothpaste at Uncle Steve’s and began to feel a little cross that maybe she had three homes now and not even just two. And actually maybe she didn’t want two. She just wanted one. But she didn’t know which one that was.

“You all right, sweetheart?” her dad asked when they were eating dinner on Saturday night.

Uncle Steve had been called in to work to have a meeting, and then he’d come rushing in late. Danno had cooked one of his mom’s favorite recipes (only without the anchovies which Grace thought gross) and it nearly spoiled. Grace had helped, even though she preferred the pots in her dad’s kitchen.

“I’m fine,” she said, sneaking a look at Uncle Steve shoveling nearly-cold spaghetti into his face while scrolling through messages on his phone.

“Gubner,” he defended himself when he saw the look.

Danno frowned at him and then looked back at her. “You sure, monkey? Because that face does not look to me like a fine face.”

“My book,” she told him. “I left it at home.” It was true that she really wanted to read it, and although it was only one thing, it was a big one.

“We have books,” Uncle Steve said on a huge swallow of his food and Grace sighed out loud. He had spaghetti sauce all over his chin and that made her want to laugh but she couldn’t because she felt cross with him all of a sudden and didn’t know why.

She watched a movie after dinner and although she didn’t think they were really watching it too, they sat either side of her like her mom and StepStan did, and like her mom and Danno used to. 

It was really hot and sleepy on Sunday and they went to the beach. Not the beach at Uncle Steve’s house, or Waikiki, but another, little beach where there was no shave ice or surf schools. Danno made up a picnic and Uncle Steve made a camp on the sand with some shade. And then Uncle Steve – of course – wanted to go in the water.

“You can go too,” Grace said when her dad had spent some time sitting next to her just watching the waves.

“You don’t want to? It’s been long enough since lunch.”

“I’m tired,” Grace said, although actually she wanted to just sit and think. 

“You brought that book?”

“Um, it’s in the car.” Uncle Steve had been very pleased when he’d found it, although Grace was pretty sure she wouldn’t read a story about a boy who wanted to be a pilot in the war.

“Not such a great choice, huh?”

“It’s okay.”

“He does try,” Danno said with the look on his face he got when Uncle Steve gave him a pain – the good kind of pain.

“I’m fine, Daddy. You go swim.”

He looked between her and Uncle Steve’s dark head in the distance. “Really I’d rather stay here and have a nap,” he said, “but it’s kind of sad to leave him all on his own. Besides, he’ll just try and swim to Japan if there’s nobody out there to stop him.”

Which made her laugh and feel happier, because it was actually nearly true.

They ended up spending ages in the water together. Like, together together. Waving at her and goofing around, having fun and pushing each other under and holding each other up. And all stuff like that. And when they came out, walking up the beach, their arms kept bumping and Uncle Steve put his hand on Danno’s back while they were talking and Danno nearly bent in half because he was laughing so hard about something Uncle Steve was saying. When Danno laughed like that it made Grace want to giggle, too.

“Should have come in, Gracie,” Uncle Steve said as they reached her and he toweled his hair until it stuck up like a wire brush.

Grace wriggled her toes in the sand. She loved the water, particularly learning how to surf with Danno, who was really good at showing you how to do things, or going out scary far with Uncle Steve, who was really good at making you feel safe, but right at this moment she decided she liked the shade because she was part New Jersey and part English Rose.

Uncle Steve slung another towel at her dad, who caught it. And then they were just smiling at each other as if they were really pleased or had a cool secret or something. She didn’t know how to explain it, but they were just being adorable and it was different to usual.

“Time for a nap,” her dad said, flinging himself down on a towel in the shady part of the camp.

Uncle Steve put on a t-shirt and _slippahs_ and said he was going for a walk and did Grace want to come. And Danno grumbled of course and asked what was the matter with him and why couldn’t he sit still for five minutes.

“You see that group of trees right down the end of the beach?” he said, ignoring her dad, grinning at Grace, and pointing. They looked a long way away, but then he said there were some very cool tidepools under them and did she want to come and see what they could find. Which she found that she actually did.

“Hat and proper shoes,” her dad said, eyes already closed.

Grace told him Uncle Steve didn’t have a hat and proper shoes but Danno just said Uncle Steve was touched, and also free to be an idiot if he wanted.

Walking off to do something with Uncle Steve while her dad took a nap was kind of like it sometimes was at home. Her other home. Where she sometimes spent some time with her mom and sometimes did other things like play chess or do her math homework with StepStan who liked numbers. But then they did ‘family’ things too. Which were usually fun, although StepStan was never going to be as awesome as her dad or as cool as Uncle Steve. Grace thought she probably loved him because he was kind and he made her mom happy, but it wasn’t the same.

As she walked along the beach she wondered if it would be different if she called him Uncle Stan. But that didn’t seem right and she knew she didn’t want to. She really wished all these annoying fishes would stop swimming around in her brain.

Uncle Steve held her hand climbing over the rocks, although he let go more than Danno would have done. And he took her right to the very edge where the waves were crashing up so they got wet, which Danno wouldn’t have done. Because he’d have been afraid she’d get washed away. 

She squealed and got slapped in the face by salt water and it was really fun. The one time she almost slipped, Uncle Steve had caught her before she had time to be frightened. She didn’t know how he managed to seem as if he wasn’t keeping a really close eye on her but actually was. 

On the way back she held his hand again. 

“Thanks, Uncle Steve.” They hadn’t really looked for anything in the tidepools after a while, but she knew that wasn’t what they’d come for.

They’d come because of the reasons Danno called him a danger magnet.

“You’re welcome, Gracie.” He squeezed her hand and she squeezed it back. “I’m sorry I was late to dinner last night, hope I didn’t spoil things too much.” He grinned. “And I’m sorry the book was so lame.”

“It’s not because it’s about a boy,” Grace said quickly. “Or because he wants to be a pilot. I think being a pilot would be cool. It’s just that it isn’t the book I’m reading and um, it’s kind of old-fashioned.”

“Well, you know, I was a kid in a whole different century to you," Uncle Steve said and laughed. "But if you ever change your mind, you know where it is and you’re always welcome to borrow it. Or anything else.”

His house really did seem to belong to everybody sometimes. You never knew who was going to walk in. 

When they left the beach, Uncle Steve carried the camp things and Danno carried the big beach bag and Grace carried the towels. After they’d packed everything in the car Danno said they should go somewhere and have a nice cool drink. So they drove for a little and then went to a place where Grace had her one soda of the weekend and her dad and Uncle Steve had beers. And they all sat and looked at the sun and the ocean and Uncle Steve had his arm resting across the back of her dad’s shoulders and her dad had his hand on Uncle Steve’s knee. And they seemed very chill.

And just like when they were goofing about in the water and when they were looking at each other without saying anything, it wasn’t quite Danno and Uncle Steve. It was Danno and Something Else.

They all sang along to the radio on the way home and Grace sat in the back seat of her dad’s car and decided she was a crazy, super, mega fan of the Something Else.

As they drove along the coast road back towards the city and Uncle Steve’s house, she also decided that if – please, please, please, please, please, please, please, _pleeeeeese_ make it happen – IF Danno and Uncle Steve actually ever got together properly like Danno and her mom had once been together properly, then it wouldn’t matter what they called each other and how many homes she had.

Because she already felt part New Jersey, part English Rose, and part Navy SEAL. 

Which might just be the coolest thing ever.


End file.
